Dick Durbin brings the scalded cat analogy:
“We need to get down to the bottom of why…is Mitt Romney running away from his company, Bain Capital, like a scaled cat,” Durbin said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Because there is evidence that under Bain Capital, they were exporting American jobs to low wage companies and he doesn’t want to be associated with it,” Durbin said, answering his own question.
Give ’em hell, Dickie…
Cuz’ it looks like the truth feels like hell to the Mittster.
This whole thing is beginning to remind me of the Seinfeld episode about everyone’s rigorous heterosexuality, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Romney is denying something he really should feel no need to deny. Right?
McCain knows, and now for sure Dick (go fuck yourself) Cheney knows.
For some reason, I have always thought of Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” as Mitt’s political theme song. “That ain’t working, that’s the way you do it.”
The public Mitt has little association with truth. His entire campaign is built on falascious strawmen.
Chris Hayes had a former Mitt Romney associate from Bain on this morning, the guy who was in charge of their “manufacturing portfolio.”
The guy welded on his big, giant, brass balls, went on Chris Hayes’ show, and vigorously yet seriously defended the practice of off-shoring manufacturing jobs. I didn’t like the s.o.b., but at least he wasn’t a weasely little scum weasel.
That’s ok; Mitt Romney is otherwise known for his consistency and political courage. As long as he doesn’t make a habit of running away from his record like this, he’ll be ok.
Well, there is no question that off-shoring jobs is an economic winner. For the corporate owner. Economists definitely think that you save money.
But the evil is that you destroy the jobs of the previous workers. So, the question is “Who pays?” or “Who loses?”
The evil in this whole thing of out-sourced jobs, insourced employment visas (H-1B, L-1, J-1, F-1, O-1, etc) is that it encourages employers, using the tax code, to replace American workers with non-American workers. Some here on our own shore, some on other locations.
Interesting post by Josh Marshall along these lines, with a long email from one of his readers who works on Wall Street:
“I think it’s worth noting that Romney’s reaction to the Bain Storm is very much of a piece with the way assorted hedge fund managers, bankers and other Masters of the Universe have responded to even the slightest criticism from Obama — with as much shock as outrage….
[snip]
…Mitt is not only congenitally blind to the optics of all this, he also appears — to quote Sonny from the Godfather — to be taking it very, very personally. That’s the only way I can explain his incredibly bizarre decision to spend the entire afternoon on TV talking about it, which is about the best way imaginable to keep the feeding frenzy going….
[snip]
…My guess is that this reflects the same rigid, top-down, sycophantic management structure that Wall Street loves — which if it didn’t cause the 2008 financial crisis, a least contributed to it. The campaign can’t really be any cooler or capable than Mitt is himself — which, when it comes to dealing with criticism, clearly ain’t much….”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/rotting_from_the_top.php
You know what’s weird? Obama has his own glass jaw but I wonder if Willard can, or will, take advantage of it. And I bet 90% of the readers of the Frog Pond know what it is.
I guess I’m the 10%, what is it?
same here, no clue
Obama’s support for NAFTA-like trade deals. Like the one that was signed with Colombia in the past year or so.
So Labor is going Romney? Plus, I don’t think Romney will go there since he probably wants more of these types of deals. Romney’s definitely not a Labor Fair Trade-type populist.
How will Romney square that with having already criticized the president for not signing deals he’s already signed? Remember? Can’t find a link atm, though.
Meanwhile, at Team Obama HQ:
Perfect!
That’s just what I said when I spotted it at The Motley Moose:
http://www.motleymoose.com/showComment.do?commentId=77123
Great – I’m stealing a copy.
My theory about Romney is simple. The times simply got ahead of him. When Romney first formulated his plans to run for president, i.e. before 2008, he never thought he’d have to answers questions like these, because in that climate, he never thought they’d be asked. What Bain did for a living was ever so acceptable.
pre internets it would have been easier
Here is a lady who makes my point a lot better than I did:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/07/15/karl-rove-yes-that-karl-rove-accuses-obama-campaign-of-gutte
r-politics/
(comment 55) Violet Says:
“One of the other things Romney has going against him is that people are tired of ultra rich CEOs tanking companies and making off with golden parachutes worth millions, while regular people lose their jobs, health insurance and houses. They’re sick of rich bankers, takeover speshulists, investment bankers, Wall St. types, and vulture capitalists because the more we’ve revered those types the worse our economy has gotten.
“A decade or two ago, you could talk about being a “CEO President” and people thought that was a good thing. Not so much anymore. Which CEO? Enron’s? Lehman Bros.? What would a CEO President do? Destroy the entire US economy? People are skeptical of those types and it just doesn’t sell like it used to.
“So when Romney tries to run on that record, the number of people who buy into it as a good thing has shrunk and the number of people who are wary has increased. Now this “retired retroactively” and “made at least $100K but `wasn’t CEO'” crap surfaces. People don’t trust it.
“So Romney is not a good candidate for these times. He doesn’t have a lot to offer and what he does offer is now questionable. The Republicans are in a tough spot.”
And by the way, George Will just classically does not get it:
“”I do not know why, given that Mitt Romney knew the day that [John] McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again that he didn’t get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest.”
“He’s done nothing illegal, nothing unseemly, nothing improper, but lots that’s impolitic,” Will added. “And he’s now in the politics business.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/george-will-matthew-dowd-blast-romney-for-not-releasing
-tax-returns/
So now he is running a retroactive campaign…?